Mark Pope Officially Becomes UK's 23rd Basketball Coach

[justafan]

FYI, as it will come up in the next days….

On Wednesday UK posted (3) assistant coach positions, those will close Wed 17th.
Today (2) associate coach positions posted and those will close Mon 21st.

That means, in order to follow rules, no announcements for those coaches Pope might bring in will be made before those dates.

In theory, the side effect is that any potential candidates can’t contact players until they’re officially hired, per NCAA.

[SBCatMan]

24 hours ago, I was Luke-warm on this hire. Now, I live it. I think it was a great hire.

Sure, Wright or Hurley would have been great hires, but they would also have been mercenaries. If you have to back up a Brinx truck to get Hurley, then he obviously doesn’t get US. Even Drew would have come here solely for personal gain. Pope gets US. He understands UK and what UK basketball means to us. He has an innovative offense. He is already attracting NIL money. He played in the NBA and will be able to sell that to recruits. He has beaten Kansas and Baylor. He is young. He is energetic. Yes, the next couple of years could be rough, but then again, maybe not.

Until I am given a solid reason otherwise, I am ALL IN, 100%, on this hire.

[Realist2]

I did a little research on Pope’s BYU team. He played a pretty deep bench this year. 8 guys played double figure minutes in their last game. His top ranked recruit was #77 and he had 3 who didn’t even get a ranking. There were 4 guys in the 80s. His offense was #14 compared to UK’s #7 and his defense was ranked 60 compared to UK’s at 109. I realize that there’s a difference in the competition the two schools played but it still looks like he did a lot with what he had. If he can snare some good transfers and recruits I think he'll be fine.

[DA#23]

Realist2, I'm sorry about your post. Two of those #'s were converted to hyperlinks...it's something wonky with the software and I don't know how to fix it.

[DA#23]

Have to admit the childlike curiosity and hope, yes, hope is starting to creep into me.

[Joneslab]

The Pope family leaving Utah.

[George]

The Pope family leaving Utah.

Does he get to bring all five wives to Kentucky?

[Joneslab]

Interesting factoid I heard about Pope earlier from Oscar Combs: he played his freshman season at Washington under former Kentucky assistant Lynn Nance. Nance was an assistant in the mid '70s and would've been around when UK was assembling its powerful championship team.

Sort of a weird historical tidbit.

[largebluej]

Interesting factoid I heard about Pope earlier from Oscar Combs: he played his freshman season at Washington under former Kentucky assistant Lynn Nance. Nance was an assistant in the mid '70s and would've been around when UK was assembling its powerful championship team.

Sort of a weird historical tidbit.

Lynn Nance had to restrained from going after Bobby Knight in the infamous head slap incident with Joe B at Bloomington in December 1974. He was a former FBI agent. I wish they had let him have at Knight. Could have made the world a better place.

[KentuckyWild2020]

Does he get to bring all five wives to Kentucky?

One wife 4 daughters I think.

This dude is super proud to be Coach, he's going to be alright ..

[KentuckyWild2020]

24 hours ago, I was Luke-warm on this hire. Now, I live it. I think it was a great hire.

Sure, Wright or Hurley would have been great hires, but they would also have been mercenaries. If you have to back up a Brinx truck to get Hurley, then he obviously doesn’t get US. Even Drew would have come here solely for personal gain. Pope gets US. He understands UK and what UK basketball means to us. He has an innovative offense. He is already attracting NIL money. He played in the NBA and will be able to sell that to recruits. He has beaten Kansas and Baylor. He is young. He is energetic. Yes, the next couple of years could be rough, but then again, maybe not.

Until I am given a solid reason otherwise, I am ALL IN, 100%, on this hire.

Same here..

We good, let's go!!!

[George]

I keep hoping I’ll get an update about some kind of contract snag or something.

This is a nightmare and y’all are lapping it up like vampires.

[40bill]

Changing systems or rebuilds are tough. This is going to be harder because it's actually a cultural change attempt. There are a whole bunch of current fans that know little of anything but the Calipari model. Throw in NIL and the transfer portal and its a risky gambit...there are few talented kids willing to sit, stay and develop.
if hard work and enthusiasm can eventually make a winner, we have a good shot in a couple years.

.meantime, it seems basketball is exciting again and we look at the future with possibilities instead of the certainty of HOPING we have enough super frosh to compete.

Hang on guys....one way or another the roller coaster is heating up and gets rolling this afternoon.

[Matt Dillon]

My wife and I really enjoyed UK bb during the Pitino years (even his first here). We lost interest after he left and now we've been saying we'll probably watch again this coming season.

[CATHYnKY]

I keep hoping I’ll get an update about some kind of contract snag or something.

This is a nightmare and y’all are lapping it up like vampires.

It is what it is. GO CATS!